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I had a rather unusual experience a few days ago.  Wednesday evening (5/30/12) I had an idea for a story.  (That’s not the unusual part.  I frequently get ideas for stories.  I’d be in trouble if I didn’t.)  But the idea didn’t arrive fully formed, so I spent Wednesday evening thinking about it.  Came home from the day job on Thursday evening, did a little research on background for the story, but it still wasn’t ready to go, so I thought about it some more that evening.

Came home from the day job Friday, the story was ready to be written.  (Mind you, I don’t have a contract at this point–the story is being written on spec.)  So I spend a few hours writing a 2000 word short story.  The first draft came out pretty clean, and it’s laid in the 1632/Ring of Fire story universe, so I went ahead and posted it in the 1632 Slush story submission forum at Bar.Baen.Com.

It’s actually pretty late in the evening at this point, so I start winding stuff down to head for the sack.  I haven’t quite finished when this email pops up from the editor of The Grantville Gazette (the e-magazine that publishes stories laid in the 1632/Ring of Fire universe).  She delivers the good news that she likes the story and she’s going to buy it.

Okay, so selling a story is always a good thing.  Selling a story quickly is an even better thing.  But I may have just set a record here.  (Remember, the story was being written on spec.  It was not a guaranteed sale.)  As best I can figure out, it was about 53.5 hours from the initial inspiration for the story to receiving the notice of sale email.  That may or may not be a record for selling an on spec story in the general writing universe, but it’s definitely a personal best.

Now how am I going to beat that?